


But, SCIENCE!

by Dragonlingdar



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, For Science!, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 13:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19813585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonlingdar/pseuds/Dragonlingdar
Summary: Odette was convinced that Cyrus Albright lived off of scientific research and air.





	But, SCIENCE!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JapaneseDragonrider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JapaneseDragonrider/gifts).



> I hope you don't mind an AU, but you did say you'd take anything...
> 
> As I am a hold-over for ye olde days: Nothing Octopath Traveler belongs to me.

Cyrus Albright was a lovely man, and Odette would grudgingly admit that she enjoyed working with him. He was brilliant, motivated, charismatic, and eloquent enough to consistently bring in grant money for their program. The problem was what he chose to _do_ with the grant money. Odette had never heard such wild ideas before--and was always a combination of chagrined and annoyed when Cyrus’ research bore fruit. Even his “failures” still managed to dredge up an interesting and noteworthy result in the process. However, it was when Cyrus worked alone that she worried for her sanity and his health. He tended to have two modes: off or on. With Cyrus Albright, there was no middle ground.

“Cyrus,” Odette sighed, rubbing her temples. “What the _hell_ ?” The lab was perfectly organized and completely spotless, which meant that Cyrus had, again, spent the weekend working instead of resting, like he had _promised_ Odette, Therese, and Mary.

“Oh, hello! Odette, is that you?” Cyrus called out.

“Yes, it is,” Odette said and walked over to Cyrus, who was measuring something under a chemical hood. He was very good at being cautious and keeping everything clean to avoid contamination and catastrophe, and was especially so when he forgot about everything else but his ideas. 

“Were you here the entire weekend?” Odette asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“Is it Monday already?” Cyrus asked, carefully pulling out of the chemical hood. “Oh, dear. I got no grading done.”

“Did you sleep?” Odette asked.

“I...did I?” Cyrus wondered aloud as he took off his gloves, then the safety goggles, and set the goggles on a nearby lab table. “I’m not sure.”

Cyrus had the feverish light in his eyes that said he was chasing some idea or hypothesis and wouldn’t stop until he cornered it and vivisected it to his satisfaction. However, the dark rings around his eyes, disheveled appearance, and slightly pungent scent said that he had probably stepped out of the lab to go to the bathroom and drink water, but for little else. 

“You went through two whole bottles of chemicals over the weekend,” Odette drawled and pointed to the jugs that rested under a different hood. “What exactly were you _doing_?”

“Well--”

“No, you know what? Don’t tell me. When did you eat last?”

“Um.”

“Take a shower?”

“I…”

“ _Cyrus_.”

“I couldn’t just _stop_ ,” Cyrus protested. “Not when I had so many _ideas_ to be explored!”

“You’re going to make a mistake and hurt yourself. You’re going home.”

“But I’m so _close_.”

“And you’ll come back with a fresh mind and perspective _after_ eating food, taking a shower, and getting some sleep.”

“But, Odette!”

“If I need to bathe you myself, _I will_ because there is no excuse to ignore your health and well-being like this.”

“I’m fine--” Cyrus’ protest was cut short by a tiny, warbling groan as he leaned heavily on a nearby table, a hand going to his head. 

“Yes. _Clearly_ , you’re fine.”

“Maybe I should eat something.”

“And get some sleep.”

“Yes, of course,” Cyrus said and pushed himself away from the table, only to lean back on a different table. “I...I don’t think it would be wise for me to try to reach my apartment alone. Could you walk with me?”

“At a distance, because you _reek_ ,” Odette drawled to hide her concern. 

“I do?”

“Not showering for days and handling chemicals will do that,” she said and took his elbow in a soft grip. “Come along, pretty boy.”

Cyrus smiled at Odette, the expression strong and genuine in the face of the exhaustion that seemed to _finally_ be setting in.

“I apologize for worrying you, Odette,” Cyrus said as Odette shepherded him out of the science building once all the chemicals and apparati were safely cleaned and away. 

“You only worry me when I come in after a weekend of grading while sunbathing at the beach to discover that you’ve neglected to leave the lab. Again. This is the third weekend in a row, Cyrus. What the hell were you chasing _this time?_ ”

Cyrus perked up and happily gushed about a hypothesis that sounded absolutely _bonkers_ , but what he had uncovered in his quest for knowledge and understanding were quite a few things that, if not new to science, were definitely new to Odette. 

_What am I going to do with this man?_ Odette sighed, unable to fully wrangle her concern into irritation. _If he doesn't kill himself before he hits 40, he’s going to have multiple Nobel Prizes to his name. The students all love him, too--everyone wants to be in his lab section because he hijacks experiments so often and veers them off in a completely different direction that has nothing to do with coursework but everything to do with viable research. If only he would actually_ take care _of himself._

Odette knew where Cyrus’ apartment building was located, due to having had to walk him back to it on more occasions than she cared to remember. It was a fairly nice building, but Odette was sure Cyrus didn’t care, if he even noticed at all. He had mentioned that he had purchased the apartment due to the fact that he couldn’t reliably recall when to make rent payments and had paid down the mortgage as fast as he could so he wouldn’t have to remember _those_ either.

“Auto-pay has saved my credit score,” he admitted to her one day.

Odette took the key Cyrus handed over to her and opened the door for him.

“ _Cyrus_ ,” she sighed as he shuffled in.

The studio apartment was almost _sterile_. It didn’t look like anyone had actually _lived_ in his apartment for at least a week, if not longer.

“I eat on campus and showered at the gym!” Cyrus protested. “And I do come back here for a change of clothes when the ones I keep in my desk...run out…”

“Okay, Cyrus. I want to make a deal with you,” Odette said as she felt a tension headache coming on. 

“Yes?”

“Our schedules are going to be _exactly_ the same. That means that if you sleep at the lab, I sleep at the lab. If you skip meals, I skip meals.”

Cyrus looked slightly bewildered. “Pardon?”

“So, unless you want _me_ to be tired, cranky, and hangry, you’re going to keep to a schedule of a _normal person_. No, you know what? I’m going to be living with you for the next two weeks.”

“What? Why?”

“Because that way I know you won’t sneak back out to the lab or something once I leave after seeing you back here.”

“But…” Cyrus looked around. “I have nowhere for you to sleep. I could purchase an air mattress, I suppose…”

“Yes. Yes, you will. It will be high-end and comfortable, and will have brand new sheets and a blanket."

Cyrus nodded, his expression surprisingly solemn, although exhaustion was clearly starting to fully settle in.

“Thank you. Stay here. Take a shower. I’ll do some food shopping for you, since I’m sure you just have instant ramen or something. You probably stay so thin by living on science and air. I’ll keep these keys until you find your spare set. Tomorrow. After you’ve had a day to contemplate what your life is going to be like for the next two weeks and what this means in terms of adapting your behavior.”

“I...very well. I suppose I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“No, you really don’t. All my nagging--and the nagging of the other science department professors, Post-docs, Adjuncts, and both graduate and undergraduate students--has led nowhere and none of us want to see you die. Thus, I am now your temporary roommate.”

“Well, I suppose there are worse fates than sharing a room with a beautiful woman,” Cyrus murmured before shuffling off to find a towel from his dresser.

_This man is going to be the literal death of me,_ Odette sighed and left Cyrus’ apartment to gather what she’d need for a fortnight of living with one of the most brilliant, _infuriating_ men she had ever known.


End file.
